Re: Ping rate changes for bad gaming experience

From what I gather, as I could also be virtually talking out of me arse, this game would benefit at a better online rate if it was strictly an online game, and if there was a much higher online players count. 

As for the ping(s) change, that's incredibly misleading and a very shady practice towards your customers. Which leads me to theorize about how (current) online matchmaking could be geared towards having not-so-good players "stealing" RP despite getting thoroughly outworked, losing/winning streaks, teams vs randoms, etc., all dictated by who's ping is better. Basically, it's a skill vs ping scenario, where the latter gets outworked by the former, and loses a tight game. Of course, that's just my theory/opinion. 

Understandably, pings, upload/download speeds are going to vary, and so on, as there's many variables to take into consideration when playing online games. Unfortunately, and with this series in its current state, the online experience is far more frustrating than any other online game that I've played. 

And before I see another post about how we can make our online experience better, you know the drill, its about time someone at EA Sports realizes that it's not always on the customers side for the lackadaisical online experience. 

@CapeBretonIslndr 

I definitely get that it's not always on the customer's side. We're constantly monitoring for issues. When the majority of the playerbase has a good connection, that makes it very difficult to troubleshoot. But, just like assuming we're responsible for bad connections, are we also the reason for good connections? Personally, upgrading my equipment made a huge difference in my own connection, but I see the occasional report where even with a router and modem designed for gaming, they still feel lag. However, these are rare as most people are using equipment provided by their ISP that really isn't designed with gaming in mind. Especially not a game like NHL that requires little to no input lag to be successful at.

Bad connections are probably the hardest issue for us to troubleshoot. There are a ton of different pieces to that puzzle and our servers are only one part of them. A myriad of things can go wrong between the data sent from your console to its final destination with our servers. 2 people in the same region, connected to the same server could have wildly different connections. There is only so much we can do to try to make everyone play with a low ping and little to no packet loss. We don't have any control over the concurrent traffic on your network, what TV/monitor you're using, what modem/router you have, if it's updated with the current firmware, if it has features specific to gaming available, your HDMI cable, the routing of your ISP and any issues that might be happening in the regions your data is being sent through.

We want you all to be able to play without issue and do all we can to make that happen. Thankfully, most are playing just fine, but when we don't have any current issues with our servers, there's only so much troubleshooting we can do.

@CapeBretonIslndr 

You can probably look up any competitive, online game and see people complaining about connections. It's one of the biggest issues with games today if not the biggest. Connections can vary wildly. In my home, there are very often 2 people playing a game online along with 2 devices streaming media at the same time as well as having a dozen devices connected to our network. Yet, my connection is fantastic and I'm often playing on northern servers. close. Also, every game is different. For example, shooters have a very different mechanic than a hockey game that has 12 players with a single object constantly in motion. If there was a huge issue on our end with connections, we'd get a far higher number of reports than we do. That will happen when we have an outage. Our forums and support are flooded with contacts about it.

I'm not going to say we're perfect. I'm sure somewhere there could be improvements made on our end, but that also goes for everyone. I have looked at thousands of connection tests over the years from people that say their internet is perfect. A very large amount of them come back saying otherwise. We can't survive without having dependable connections and do all we can to make that happen.

@southpaw86 

Of course someone with a bad connection is going to have a far more difficult time competing. I'm just saying this isn't always on our end. Other games get reports of lag as well. A quick search of the RL's reddit will show people complaining of it. Chances are good you can look up any online game and see people reporting lag/disconnects.

I think RL is a fantastic game. It's incredibly fun, but it's also very different than NHL. The mechanics and physics are very different than NHL. Especially when it comes down to using a stick to play. You're not just bumping in to the puck. Players are carrying it, making moves with it, doing all they can to keep control instead of just angling their bodies to move the puck in a direction. All of this is going to contribute to the amount of data and how that data is sent/received. NHL also has 12 players on screen with the game making calculations based on player positioning, speed of the puck, behavior based on strategies being used, fatigue, the cone of vision each player has and assessing various threats on the ice, stat tracking, etc. There's a ton going on in the background and that all has to be sent/received through an online connection. While these 2 games have the same objective, they play very differently and that's going to have an impact on what kind of connection you need to play lag-free.

I get how easy it is to make the assumption that because other games are fine, the problem is on us. I'm not saying we're 100% perfect all the time. We have our own server issues now and then, but to make the assumption we're solely responsible for people having high pings just isn't accurate. There are way too many variables to single out the problem being only on our end. Especially when so many are playing without issue. I'm typically playing on a 40 - 50 ms ping and haven't had a problem winning faceoffs. I'm not saying because I don't have this issue that it means all is well. Everyone's experience is going to vary based on many variables outside of our control. We are always working to provide as stable a connection as we can.

Can you show me video of being pulled in to a pass? I'd like to understand that better. 

@southpaw86 

Apologies for the misunderstanding. RL takes a tremendous amount of skill to be good at. I'm just saying, they shouldn't be compared when it comes to connections due to the very different mechanics these games have. That as well as the overall differences in what you see on screen and what is going on in the background.

There is no built in momentum shift in NHL. That is akin to the idea of Ice Tilt. If this discussion continues to go down that path, I'll have to lock it.

It's been a while since I played RL, but connections issues were extremely rare, if at all. Which is how it is for every other game I play. I only bring this up because if we truly had a world-wide issue with our servers, we'd be getting a far higher number of complaints.

@southpaw86 

We'll keep an eye out for other reports of inaccurate pings. Currently, we're not seeing any issues on our end that would be causing this. Thanks for all the feedback. It's very much appreciated.